St. Maarten's Phillip Benjamin broke away from the lead pack on the final lap of Sunday’s Jason Bally Memorial road race to claim victory. (Photos by Gordon French)
-St. Croix's Sue Brown dominates women field
St. Maarten’s Phillip Benjamin broke away from the lead pack on the final lap of Sunday’s Jason Bally Memorial road race, powering his way to the finish in 2 hours, 30 minutes and 28 seconds in his debut ride in the
Virgin Islands.
“I decided to make my move on the second lap to
West End when I realised that the lead pack was falling back. I break, but I didn’t see anyone follow me so I just kept on going,” Benjamin said shortly after completing the 100K course.
“I think that the race was a very good one but it should have been much longer. I told myself coming in that I have to watch most of the BVI riders because it is their homeland and they should have been more improved. But they did not impress me at all. If I get the hills down here to train on I would be a better rider, probably the best in the
Caribbean,” Benjamin stated.
St. Croix’s Sue Brown continued her dominance in the women’s division, extending her win streak to six by edging out the VI’s Lisa Adamson by six minutes before continuing on the extended course.
“Going into it I thought I would have done poorly because I am tired from a long season of competition, but it was the exact opposite. Once I got in the race, I started to feel relaxed and the hills didn’t seem so hard this year. I just stayed with the pack of men for as long as I could.
They make the breakaway and make most of the attacks. I just stayed with them,” Brown said.
Adamson, who has already qualified for the Caribbean Cycling Championships time trial, was pegged back by a flat tire in the race and was unable to keep pace with the lead pack.
“It completely changed my plan, my aim was to stay with Sue and watch Sue move. I was feeling good and fresh, and then as soon as I got the flat all my technique just went by the wayside.
It took an awful lot out of me to catch up with everybody at Sea Cows Bay and then once I hit Baughers Bay Hill I had trouble with my gears. As soon as I started to change down the gears it started slipping and so I ended up climbing the hills in harder gear,” Adamson stated.
For the men, Andrew “Tubes” Thompson turned in the best finish for the VI, finishing 11th in 2 hours, 35 minutes, 26 seconds.
“I had some gear issues on Sophie Bay, I got gapped about 20 meters on Sophie Bay so I kind of sat up and waited for a few of my teammates to come on and we had a good ride.
It’s a shame not to be able to quite hang on to that front peloton. We will have to get in some hard training before we leave for
St. Vincent because there will be some fast guys down there,” Thompson stated.
Cycling Federation president David Thomas said he was disappointed with road construction that affected the race, but also noted that the VI performance points to the need to get more young riders involved in cycling.
“It was an excellent race, besides from the idiot that almost killed about half of the field at the beginning of the race and the road construction that occurred after we were told it would not have happened. The problem we have here in the BVI, we need to have youths.
You can see most of the guys that came in are mostly in their 20s or very early 30s.I’m leaving it for the next President to be really honest. I love it but I think it is time for me to give it to somebody else and let them try and deal with it,” Thomas alluded.
Prior to the race, cyclists made a controlled ride to
SeaCowsBay where they paused for a minute of silence at a plaque erected in remembrance of Jason Bally, a Trinidadian cyclist who was murdered in 1999.
Final results
1. Phillip Benjamin, St. Maarten, 2 hours 30 minutes and 28 seconds. 2. Apolinar Acevedo,
St. Croix, 2:30.47. 3.
Richardson Clarke, St. Maarten, 2:32.12. 4. Gordon Kennedy,
St. Martin, 2:32.12. 5. Robert Buman,
St. Croix, 2:32.12. 6.
Kurt Maraj,
St. Lucia, 2:32.12. 7. Patricio Carty,
St. Martin, 2:32.12. 8.
JymeBridges,
Antigua, 2:32.12. 9. Orano Andrews,
St. Vincent, 2:32.12. 10. Bienvenido Carti, St. Maarten, 2:32.12. 11. Andrew Thompson, BVI, 2:35.26. 12. John Riggs,
St. Croix, 2:35.26, 13. Gareth Thomas, BVI, 2:35.26. 14. Ken Jackson,
Antigua, 2:35.26. 15. Juancito Gario,
St. Croix, 2:37.15. 16. Cumber Greaux,
St. Croix, 2:37.15. 17. Glenn Massiah,
St. Croix, 2:37.15. 18. Mark Smith, BVI, 2:37.15. 19. Anthony Spenser, 2:37.15. 20. Phillippe Leroy, BVI, 2:37.15. 21. Jose Diaz,
St. Croix, 3:17.20. 22. Antonio Andrews, 3:26.18. 23. Tom Merrigan, 3:31.20. 23. Chris Ghiorse, 3:41.50. DNF: Neil Lloyd, Neil Thomas, Mericus Modeste, Keble McDonald and Hank
Vegeer.
Women: 1. Sue Brown, St. Croix, 1:34.48. 2. Lisa Adamson, BVI, 1:40.27. 3. Patlian Johnson, BVI, 1:52.13. 4. Kay Reddy, BVI, 2:03.34. 5. Sally Blackmore, BVI, 2:08.28.
Juniors: 1. Johnathan Cruz, St. Croix, 1:37.08. 2. Darel Christopher, Jr., BVI, 1:37.13. 3. Mark Defour, St. Croix, 1:45.37.
“Going into it I thought I would have done poorly because I am tired from a long season of competition, but it was the exact opposite. Once I got in the race, I started to feel relaxed and the hills didn’t seem so hard this year. I just stayed with the pack of men for as long as I could.
Final results 
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